Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
In the US Navy some quirk of etymology eliminated the 'Boatswain' (pronounce "Bosun" - the German 'Bootsmann') from the picture altogether. There are 'Boatswain's Mates', but the senior of them is the 'Chief Boatwain's Mate', never a Bosun himself. But what makes it confusing to an American is that the Chief Of the Boat, or COB, is called "Chief", the translation given to the LI in Das Boot. And the 1WO is translated as "Number One" in the movie, whereas in the book that title was appropriately given to the senior enlisted man.
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Something that's been bugging me for a long time since someone made another comment about it, what is the chief's rank in
Das Boot? At the beginning of the movie when he's wearing the black coat he's got 2 strikes and an officer hat. From that it looks like he's an Oberleutnant Z.s. He dines with the officers so he's got to be an Oberleutnant or a senior NCO rank (US equivalent like a senior chief petty officer or master chief petty officer) which would be fanrich/oberfanrich Z.s. in German.
They're aren't many shots of him where you can see his shoulder boards, they look like line officer boards with 1 pip, the board is too wide to be a Fanrich Z.s. but he isn't singled out as an officer like the #1 and 2 are but is treated and given the repsect like a good #1 would, or the senior NCO of a high rank.